Archive | November 2005

Picture Book Preschool: Week 47

Nov14

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

WEEK 47 (Nov) THANKSGIVING
Character Trait: Righteousness (Choosing Right)
Bible Verse: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

1. Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Deer in the Wood. Scholastic, 1995.
2. Child, Lydia Maria. Over the River and Through the Woods. Illustrated by Brinton Turkle. Coward, 1974. OP
3. Devlin, Wende and Harry. Cranberry Thanksgiving. Four Winds, 1971.
4. Kessel, Joyce K. Squanto and the First Thanksgiving. Carolrhoda, 1983.
5. Gibbons, Gail. Thanksgiving Day. Holiday House, 1983.
6. Miller, Edna. Mousekin’s Close Call. Prentice-Hall, 1980. OP
7. Miller, Edna. Mousekin’s Golden House. Prentice-Hall, 1964.OP

Activities: Make sure this unit falls on the week of or just before Thanksgiving. Enjoy celebrating with your preschooler. Talk about the Pilgrims and why they came to America and how they gave thanks to God for their blessings in spite of many hardships.

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To This Great Stage of Fools: Born November 14th

Nov14

Aaron Copland, b. 1900. He composed Fanfare for the Common Man in 1942 and Appalachian Spring in 1944. He won a Pulitzer Prize for the latter piece. Copland wrote a book called What to Listen for in Music. Have any of you read it? Is it good? (I’m in the midst of an ongoing discussion with a group of young adults about what makes music worthwhile and how to judge music and even whether to judge music by any objective standards. If any of my readers can suggest any other titles related to this topic, I’d be appreciative.)

Astrid Lindgren, b. 1907. I have a daughter who could easily be taken for Pippi Longstocking–as long as she didn’t open her mouth. My little Pippi is by far the most demure, quiet, shy little girl in the family. Z-baby, who doesn’t resemble red-headed Pippi at all is brave, bold, strong, and not afraid to let everyone within hearing distance know all about it. So much for physical resemblances. Pippi Longstocking and her sequels and still good reads.

Claude Monet, b. 1840. Read Linnea in Monet’s Garden. And here’s a Monet line drawing that you can print out and color yourself.

Nancy Tafuri, b. 1946, author and illustrator of Have You Seen My Duckling? Some ideas for extending the learning and fun of this book..

Call Me Ishmael

Nov14

On November 14, 1851, Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick was first published in the U.S.

I must admit that I never finished Moby DIck. Well, I finished it, read the end, but I skipped a lot in the middle. The chapter called “The Whiteness of the Whale” just didn’t do much for me–an entire chapter on whiteness. I’m sure I missed something very important and enlightening there, but I just couldn’t manage it.

Have any of you read Moby Dick? Can anyone tell me why you like it if you do?

Nature Never Stops Talking by Samuel J. Alibrando

Nov13

Subtitled “The Wonderful Ingenuity of Nature,” this book is right down Engineer Husband’s alley. The author, Samuel Alibrando, has been “writing articles about nature for 10 years in a small local paper for foothill residents in central California.” Engineer Husband also enjoys doing things to get people, especially kids, excited about science. So Mr. Alibrando and Engineer Husband have a lot in common. I, on the other hand, am not a science person at all. But Nature Never Stops Talking gave me some new thoughts about science, philosophy, and common sense that were well worth the time spent reading.

The book itself is a compilation of some of Mr. Alibrando’s columns with bridge material and extra information added to flesh the book out–not filler, mind you, but rather Alibrando’s Laws, and Ripples and examples of how those laws and ripple effects work out in real life. The book is divided into sections: Earth and Space, Scientific Properties, The Small Stuff, Beginnings, Plants and Trees, Insects, Specific Creatures, DNA, and The Human Body. The final section is called “Yeah, What About That” and has to do with a hodgepodge of ideas concerning evolution, design, nature, population and . . . . well, a conglomeration of other stuff. So here’s a sampling of the new-to-me ideas that I got from reading Nature Never Stops Talking:

1) Alibrando’s Law #1: To exist, a thing must first begin, specifically. And for living things that reproduce sexually, there had to be two firsts, a male and a female, at the same time and in the same place. Think about it. One squirrel can’t reproduce squirrels by itself; there had to be two squirrels, one male and one female, in the same place at the same time with the same number of chromosomes to make more squirrels. So how do evolutionists get that particular miracle to happen?

2) The more complicated a design, the more brains it takes to put it together. So can anyone reading these words create, ex nihilo, out of nothing, a tree or a raccoon, or even an amoeba? Can you even put one together if I give you the raw materials?

3) If a population doubles within a generation, or about every 40 years, then calculating backwards to 0, it would take about 1500 years for the population of humans to get from where it is now to 0 –or 2. Throw in plagues and wars and whatever else you can think of, and you still don’t get few enough people and limited enough reproduction to fill millions–or very many thousands– of years. So what happened?

So if you’re interested in these kinds of questions and this kind of common sense thinking, you should dip into Samuel Alibrando’s Nature Never Stops Talking. You might find yourself asking a few more questions and thinking a few more wonder-filled thoughts. I’m planning to read it out loud to the urchins at the supper table.

This book was given to me as a gift by Mind and Media for the purpose of review. You can purchase a copy of Nature Never Stops Talking: The Wonderful Ingenuity of Nature by Samuel Alibrando from any of these bookstores.

What They’re Reading

Nov12

George Grant is reading biographies of Shakespeare and Augustine, and he’s reading Jan Karon and a thriller by Vince Flynn. And I thought I was eclectic.

Dani at A Work in Progress is reading So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson. I read this book about a year ago, and although Ms. Nelson and I don’t have the same taste in books, I thoroughly enjoyed her zest for reading and her adventures in reading one book per week for a year.

Javamom is reading American literature and planning to read Dostoyevsky–someday. I will agree that one must PLAN to read Dostoyevsky–make a date, so to speak. It’ll be worth the effort.

And M-MV has her twenty-fourth installment of “On the nightstand (under the pillow, in the knapsack, etc.)” here.

So now you know what some of THEM are reading. What are you reading this fine Saturday?

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born November 12th

Nov12

Richard Baxter, b. 1615. Puritan preacher, he wrote over 140 books of sermons, devotions, and instruction. Baxter is the author of this famous dictum on Christian unity:

In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.

Let’s thank God today for Richard Baxter and all his fellow Puritans. They may have sometimes lapsed into legalism, but at their best they were passionate followers of Jesus Christ, dedicated to Christian unity, Christian liberty, and Christian charity.

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere

Nov11

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere. Blaise Pascal

It’s Veteran’s Day, and here’s something you can DO to help veterans today. Project Valour-It provides voice-activated computer equipment for disabled soldiers. A good cause, don’t you think?

Mrs. Happy Housewife links to several bloggers who should have logged their last post long ago: David Brainerd, John Wesley, Spurgeon, and Pepys. I would add that C.S. Lewis also has a blog: The Window in the Garden Wall. Any other good dead bloggers you know of?

Maybe death is the theme this week. Ariel at BittersweetLife celebrates a bittersweet birthday and remembers that death is one year nearer.

Speaking of celebrations, I’ll bet you didn’t know that “christmas is an ancient tradition that has its roots in SIberian shamanism.” Read all about it.

And here’s another posthumous work of literature, well, sort of. LOST fan that I am, I don’t think I’ll be reading this book unless someone I trust assures me that it’s worth my time and money. Maybe Kevin at Collected Miscellany will review it for the benefit of those of us who are somewhat obsessive about LOST, but also short on time and possessed of a long list of other books to read.

Karl Rove, Joe Wilson, and Valerie Plame all attend the same evangelical church? (From Palm Tree Pundit) What kind of sense does that make?

If you have or are planning to have a baby,Molly at Choosing Home tells you everything you ever wanted to know about wearing your baby, i.e. baby carriers. I wish I had had all this info when my babies were little; I never did find a baby sling or pouch that didn’t make my back ache.

For those whose children are a little older, Barbara of Mommy Life blogs here and here about teaching kids to work and to serve. Good stuff.

Amy has some thoughts about the same subject.

Holly, also at Choosing Home and not to be confused with Molly, writes about Operation Christmas Child. What a great family Christmas project!

Is the role of parent, one male and one female, headed toward obsolescence? James Kushiner at Mere Comments tosses out some ideas on the future of legalities related to birth and parenthood.

Blest With Sons has some great words of wisdom that didn’t quite make the Biblical cut, including this one: “She who mainlines pixie sticks while changing lanes at 75mph lacks wisdom and foresight.” Right.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born November 11th

Nov11

He was born on this date in 1821.

While he was at school, his father was murdered by his own servants at the family’s small country estate.

He graduated from engineering school but chose a literary career.

He was arrested and charged with subversion because of his meetings with a group of intellectuals to discuss politics and literature. He and several of his associates were imprisoned and sentenced to death. As they were facing the firing squad, an imperial messenger arrived with the announcement that the death sentences had been commuted to four years in prison and four years of military service..

While in prison, his intense study of the New Testament, the only book the prisoners were allowed to read, contributed to his rejection of his earlier liberal political views and led him to the conviction that redemption is possible only through suffering and faith.

In 1867, he fled to Europe with his second wife to escape creditors.

He returned home and finished what many consider to be his greatest novel two months before his death in 1881

Quotes by Mr. X:

“Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.”
“It’s life that matters, nothing but life–the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself at all.”
“So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find some one to worship.”
“If there is no God, then I am God.”
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what people fear most.”

Quotes about Mr. X:

“…the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn.” – Nietzsche
“. . . gives me more than any scientist, more than Gauss.” – Albert Einstein
“an author whose Christian sympathy is ordinarily devoted to human misery, sin, vice, the depths of lust and crime, rather than to nobility of body and soul” -Thomas Mann
“..the nastiest Christian I’ve ever met”.-Turgenev
“He was in the rank in which we set Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe.” – Edwin Muir
“My husband was to me such an interesting and wholly enigmatic being, that it seemed to me as though I should find it easier to understand him if I noted down his every thought and expression.” -Mr X’s second wife
(My response to Mrs. X’s observation is: aren’t they all? But who would have time or energy to write it all down–and then try to figure it out?)

Box of Books blogger, Ella, says this author’s name should be used as a noun meaning “something or someone who excites feelings of deep sadness”. She adds, “You’d think . . . our gloomy friend would be at least semi-popular.”

Finally, I never have been able to decide how to spell his name. So who is it? And what about you? Have you read his novels? What did you think? Do you find him gloomy and sad or interesting and enigmatic–or all of the preceeding? And how do you spell his name?

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born November 10th

Nov10

Martin Luther, b. 1483. Today during Thanksgiving for the Saints Month, I’m giving thanks for Martin Luther: warts and all he “turned the world upside down.”

A few days ago George Grant wrote about Martin Luther. If you’re interested in history in general or church history in particular, Grantian Florilegium is the blog to visit–frequently.

What saints who have contributed our Christian heritage do you want to thank God for this month? I�m open to suggestions, and I�ll see about writing a tribute to whomever you suggest.

Also born November 10th: Oliver Goldsmith, Kate Seredy. St. Patrick.
St. Patrick’s Breastplate or Lorica

Going on a Book Hunt

Nov9

Jacob Weisberg of Slate goes Bookhunting in Britain., and he describes his two favorite bookstores in London.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a favorite London bookstore. My favorite bookstores here in Houston are Half-Price Books and Barnes and Noble. If Half-Price put in some couches and tables, I’d probably desert Barnes and Noble, but B & N is a nice place to browse the latest and theoretically greatest.

What’s your favorite bookstore? Why?